Rob Portman: “this is a bizarre debate today. I guess the bottom line is, if you are for fast track, you think this legislation as…”

“this is a bizarre debate today. I guess the bottom line is, if you are for fast track, you think this legislation as presented to the House today makes sense, vote for it. Then we can pass this thing. If all the Members who have come up here and said that they are for free trade truly are for free trade and are sincere about it, we can pass this thing. This is a bizarre debate in another respect. For years Ronald Reagan and George Bush got fast track authority from a Democrat Congress. They went out and they negotiated agreements that were in the interest of this country. Now we have a situation where President Clinton is coming before a Congress that is dominated by Republicans, and the Republicans are willing to give him fast track authority to negotiate on behalf of our country to open up foreign markets. Yet the Democrats are not giving it to their own President. It has only lapsed twice in history, in 1988 and again in 1993. This is the longest lapse in duration by far. It has been 6 years since this President has had full fast track authority. We need to provide it. Thirty percent of our growth in our economy is directly related to exports. We have the freest market in the world. We need to knock down the barriers in these other countries. We have a whole slew of multilateral agreements that are being negotiated over the next couple of years. We have to be at the table.”